Tekko 2016 (a review)

Tekko 2016 has passed us by, and while on the surface it seemed to be the same exciting Japanese culture smorgasbord it has been in the past, much changed—-for the better. In many ways the change was imperceptible, except for two things that were like night and day compared to previous years of Tekko. The first is that ticketing was a much smoother experience. While I was upstairs picking up our press passes, my wife was able to get from the end of the registration line to the head of it to buy our daughter’s half price child registration. I was extremely happy about this, as in past years,Tekko’s lines moved at the glacial rate of a much larger convention.

The second major change provided long time Tekko goers with a pleasant surprise upon arrival: Tekko 2016’s upgraded gaming room. Despite being stuffed into a panel room in previous years, the video gaming room has long been one of the more popular attractions at the convention—so much so that the gaming room had its own rules to regulate the nonstop Rock Band that went on in there, such as “No Bohemian Rhapsody Until X O’Clock.” The board game area may actually have been a little larger than the video game area in past years, but as it was part of a hallway, and convention traffic would traipse back and forth through the board game space, no doubt many players were reminded of being in an airport. This year, in Tekko 2016, Hall C in the David L Lawrence Convention Center was purposed for both video games and board games, and there was so much room that the gamers had a hard time using all the space. This hangar-sized space made the video game area less claustrophobic, the board game area less interrupted by foot traffic, and the combined area much more inviting. Additionally, the upgraded gaming room was also right next to the Exhibition room in Hall B, which made it easier for the gamers to do some shopping and possibly increased sales for the vendors.

With so many tables available for use, there were a great number of board games in use at any given time. And whether it was purposeful or accidental, there was a lot of variety in the games being played, so board game fanatics could eyeball a bunch of different games: Terra Mystica, Mysterium, Magic the Gathering, and more. The video game section had even sweeter eye candy, with amazing imported and untranslated Japanese coin op video games that no doubt satisfied many players, whether or not they knew what the game was called or exactly what they were supposed to be doing in the game. In previous years, the video game room was almost entirely console play comprised of games that users could find at Game Stop, and this year showed an astonishing leap in terms of providing a Japanese coin op arcade experience that seems so authentic, you think you might have to cross an ocean to find something like it. The staggering evolution of the dedicated gaming area at Tekko makes me happy for many reasons, but mainly because it seems proof to me that the pop culture convention scene in Pittsburgh is evolving, with enough growing conventions to create a sense of rivalry—in this case, Tekko seemed to be emulating last year’s first RePlay FX with the game room’s expansion.

Aside from these welcome changes, it was Tekko as usual at Tekko 2016, and if there’s one thing Tekko does best, it is this convention’s spirit of competitive cosplay. As usual, there was a high percentage of cosplayers at this convention with perhaps 20-25% of attendees in costume on Friday, and more than 50% of attendees in costume on Saturday, and that percentage would be even higher if you were to count every person with cosplay elements in their attire, such as cat ears, tails, character hats, and so forth. There were old standbys, such as Sailor Moons and Dragonball Z characters, but also a lot of inspired costuming, such as this eight foot tall ancient robot from Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky.

And the cosplay was not limited to characters from manga and anime. While the content and subject matter of this con is greatly slanted toward manga and anime, if you were to judge the convention based on the cosplayers, you would expect it to be more of a general comic convention, as the costumes on display were a melting pot of fandoms. Deadpool was extremely popular, and there were also Mabels and Dippers, Crystal Gems, Earth-2 Flash in the CW network’s version of Jay Garrick’s costume, and an extremely well tailored Dark Phoenix.

On Friday, we went to the panel “A Complete History of Manga,” which was an extremely interesting hour of not only the history of manga, but also the lecturer’s anecdotes from a long career researching manga—for example, finding a rare manga at the bottom of a box of picture postcards during a Buddhist temple’s garage sale. Life details like this studded more scholarly observations, such as the more than passing similarities between Osamu Tezuka’s Kimba the White Lion and Disney’s The Lion King, and the boxing manga Ashita no Joe and Rocky. As I like to remind people, the convention experience is not only about filling your swag bag, but about filling your mental swag bag, and going to good panels like this one is one of the most important parts of a good convention experience.

The other most important part of a good convention experience is getting a sketch in artists’ alley.  While scouring the exhibition hall for this or that rare collectible will satisfy your hunting instincts, there is also something satisfying in getting a good sketch, as it is a unique memento of your experience and only limited by the imagination of your request and the skill of the artist. Not to mention that your Tekko badge gets you access to skilled artists sitting at tables waiting to draw your most devious thoughts, so you should take advantage of this. The first thing we did on Saturday was go to artists’ alley and find an artist whose style I appreciated to fill in the sketch cover to my Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fool’s Special #1. In this case, I was incredibly lucky to find two excellent artists sharing a table: Jared Martin, who did the layout for the sketch, and Sami Kern, who fleshed it out. I knew instantly that they were the artists for this sketch when I saw their cartoon styles displayed at the booth, but my decision was cemented when I saw a Rick and Morty print for sale. They not only knew what a Mr. Meeseeks was but grokked my idea of putting Harley, with her mallet, in Jerry’s situation from the Rick and Morty episode “Meeseeks and Destroy.” For your amusement:

Later that day, we went back to the game room, and enjoyed Pachinko Fever. Tekko has acquired fourteen pachinko games since 2009, and they had the Japanese game machines in one section of the game room, with an attached booth that offered prizes to the players that accumulated enough points to get them.

For $1, we received 25 pachinko balls, which my daughter parlayed into 150 pachinko balls before expressing an interest in returning to the imported coin op video games. It only took us about five to ten minutes to accumulate this many pachinko balls, and I can imagine that patient Pachinko players could walk away with a really nice prize with nothing but a dollar and an investment of time. We got two pieces of candy for our 150 points, and there were card games, board games, and collectibles available in the 1000 point and up range.

After Pachinko, my daughter played Konami’s Bishi Bashi, which contains a delightful assortment of mini-games, including this one, in which you must sit as many people on the toilet as you can:

Then we went back to the board game side of the game room, where there is a large library of board games available for players to rent, one at a time, by leaving their registration badge at the game library booth. I decided to teach my daughter Machi Koro, as it is a game that we play often on game night with family friends, but do not own ourselves.

After we played Machi Koro twice, we scoped out Havenfall, a card-slash-board game that was being playtested at Tekko and will soon be available on Kickstarter. While we did not play this game, I was intrigued by the game design and it seemed to have the allure that only games with a good concept emanate. Havenfall never had any shortage of players either of the times that we were in the game room.

While many pop culture conventions only have boring fast food and vending machines, Tekko vendors bring a lot of Japanese junk food, and this also adds a layer to the Tekko experience. Before leaving Tekko 2016, we stopped back in the Exhibition room to buy my daughter a Pocky flavor we haven’t seen in Pittsburgh, and also a big box of sesame, red bean, and peanut mochi.

Tekko 2016 not only was another great Tekko experience, it also raised its game this year with its improved ticketing and upgraded game room. Every year Tekko impresses me with the wide assortment of cosplay, so that I think that every year it outpaces itself. Attendance was increased by 30%, according to Tekko’s Facebook page, but you’d never know it as the convention planners wisely increased their holdings in the David L Lawrence convention center compared to previous years. In every way, Tekko 2016 was a satisfying experience that not only provided a dynamic convention experience, it also provided a quality family experience. My experience may not be the average Tekko-goer’s, as my family doesn’t take in the concerts, comedy shows, or the 18+ panels, but there was plenty to do and enjoy.